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Arts practitioners urged to do UNESCO survey

JT Communication Solutions
03/19/2012 15:56:46

The Arterial Network’s working group on the 2005 UNESCO Convention invites all arts practitioners to fill in an online survey on cultural diversity.

The survey relates to progress made towards realising the goals set out in the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression, which was the subject of a two-day conference in Johannesburg late last year.

As a follow-up to this international indaba, the Arterial Network’s working group on the Convention is carrying out a survey to determine the level of civil society engagement with the UNESCO policy document – especially among individuals and organisations within the arts and culture sphere.

Participants are requested to log on to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W27CHCY and complete the survey (anonymously, if desired) before Friday, 30 March 2012. The information collated will be used to inform the working group’s report to UNESCO on behalf of the South African cultural sector.

Says Mhlanganisi Masoga, a SAMRO representative in the 2005 Convention Working Group: “As we commemorate Sharpeville Day, and celebrate Human Rights Day, may we remember that access to one’s arts, culture and language is a basic human right enshrined in our Constitution.”

Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights, clauses 30 and 31, states that “[e]veryone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice” and that communities have the right “to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language”.

Similarly, the UNESCO Convention aims to, inter alia, protect diversity of cultural expression, foster cultural interaction, promote respect for different cultures, and reaffirm the importance of the link between culture and development, particularly in developing countries.